Even if that were the eventual goal, it seems a bit excessive to have multiple variants flying before any of them have reached LRIP or even left the prototype stage.
Shenyang next gen combat aircraft thread
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
It seems that the pilot's position seems to be pretty reclined presumably for better ergonomics and to handle higher G loads, someone raised concern about ejection being unsafe due to the position but IMO what if the ejection seat in J-XDS doesn't fire directly up but at a reclined angle backwards due to J-XDS not having any vertical tail to clear, it could possibly even improve survivability and reduce chances of injury.
This should have been posted under Funny videos thread.
The tailless definitely looked like j-xds
Is Justin Bronk even a qualified expert with relevant experience with an engineering background?
Is it so hard for Westerners to understand that China, with its 1.4 billion people, highly trained population and a strong government, has immense human resources, and that for every aerospace engineer produced in the U.S., it can employ at least five—without having to allocate a monstrous share of its budget to the military at the expense of the civilian economy? The military challenge to China was initiated by the U.S., and China is rightly responding by allocating more resources to defense (yet always within the limits of economic sustainability—unlike the USSR). The U.S. is doubly foolish: not only did it launch the provocation, but it’s also unable to keep up with the consequences of its own aggression. They've picked a fight with a creature far bigger than themselves. It's like a dog attacking a Grizzly bear.
I think you're mischaracterizing what he said a bit. He said it's possible that they're both demonstrators flying in the open, but also possible that they're of two real parallel developments. He then immediately follows up with citations of multiple cases of other PLAAF parallel developments, while also noting that he doesn't speak mandarin and is not as well versed at PLA watching as @Blitzo or @Deino. To me, that portion sounds more like him bringing up the often repeated idea of the two 6th gens being TDs that very likely won't amount to anything real and then debunking it.
He does mention that China as a communist country is less averse to duplication of efforts, but also in addition to employment benefits it helps build out industrial base and provides China with more options, particularly noting that the J-36 and the J-50 are clearly very different aircrafts with different emphases. Notably, he mentions the J-36's size but does not use that as evidence of it being a strike-oriented aircraft, but simply as one which emphasizes high range/payload at high altitude/speed.
Overall I'd say not too bad of an analysis by someone who even himself admits is not an expert in the realm like the other better known western PLA watchers.